Capilano Bridge

On the last Saturday in April, we needed to get out of the house, so we ventured out to a famous local attraction... the Capilano Bridge!  The original rope bridge was created on the site in 1889 by a land developer, and it was reconstructed with wire cables in 1903.  It quickly became a popular destination in the region and has been every since.  You can read more about the bridge here:  http://www.capbridge.com

The bridge itself is a simple suspension bridge and is 136m long, rising 70m above the river below.

Here's Owen at the entrance...

 And my back-packing buddy

These totem poles were created and put on display by local First Nations in the 1930's.

The bridge itself is impressive. If there are a lot of people on it, it can roll quite a bit, but if you walk in the middle of the platform, it's not as noticeable....

Owen was nervous at first, but then he really liked it.

I was amazed at just how big the trees are in this area.  Most are hundreds and some approaching 1000 years old.  Just think.....these trees had been here on location already for generations, when Columbus was making land discoveries!  Pictures don't do it justice... they are majestic.

There is a walking tour called the treetops adventure, which is comprised of several suspended bridges high in the trees and paths around the cliff ponds.  Along the way, you have several stops to gather stamps at trivia kiosks.  Owen and Molly had a blast trekking around.

Allison and Owen at one of the higher sections....  No bouncing!  :)

This is a view from the ground of the same section.

The bridge from the outlook over the canyon.

Owen wanted to take his picture next to one of the trees, so all his friends could see how big it was.

Facts about Owen's tree.

This is the view North from the middle of the bridge. 

Owen & Molly in one of the Totem poles.

And finally our adventurers with their certificates.  Molly is saying "cheese".. hence the grimacing smile.

Earlier in the day, we  stopped at subway for lunch in Edgemont, which is a nice little suburb of North Vancouver.  Owen declared that the meatball subs in Canada were "de-lish".   Also, we found a great cup-cake shop where Molly devastated a chocolate cupcake with pink frosting and sparkly sprinkles.  It's called the "diva" and it was perfect.

Easter Weekend

Good Friday is a national holiday in Canada, so I had the day off work.  Several neighbors had let us know about the local community center egg hunt, which was planned for Friday morning.  The center is over behind Owen's school and an easy morning walk. Wow, what a turnout!  They were quite organized...with each age group appropriately separated.  Tim Horton's had a mobile station there, providing free coffee and mocha to the mom's and dads!

Molly and Owen brought their classic Peep Easter baskets, which everyone thought were so cool!  Here's Molly planning her strategy.

Owen took some pictures of mommy all by himself.

Princess and her pigtails, on the prowl for chocolate eggs!  She was so funny... getting quite excited when she spotted them in the grass.

 

While I was helping Molly, Allison was cheering on Owen in his area.  Allison said the pace at which they picked up all the eggs was pretty impressive..... 

After the egg hunt, we stayed for about an hour and played on the playground at the community center.  They had two gyms, swings and see saws...  Molly loved going down the twin slide together with her brother.

Capturing the sound here, Molly would laugh hysterically every time Owen gave her a push.  Higher brother....higher!

This is pure joy right here....

They bounced on the see-saw for at least 20 minutes with several other little kids, changing sides, Owen standing the middle...  Daddy on one side and a pile of kids on the other....  what fun

Saturday, the weather was beautiful so we spent most of the day outdoors. We went down to Rocky Point Park for the afternoon.  There's a small water park, playground, miles of hiking/biking paths, and a boat launch.  For some history, Port Moody was the original planned termination for the Canadian Pacific Railroad, as declared in 1879.  The railway was completed to Port Moody in 1885, with passenger travel starting in 1886.  At this time, the town was officially booming, with all hoping it would become a west coast metropolis.  This growth lasted a whole year, until a branch line was run to Vancouver, and development fell flat.  Several business' stayed in the area, and the town officially incorporated in 1913.  Today, the city is home to about 30,000 residents, including us!

This view from the boat launch is quite beautiful.

Allison and Owen watching boats....

Owen at the back of the inlet.

In the park, we had Fish & Chips at Pajo's for dinner, then we had to stop at the ice cream shop, which is owned by one of Owen's classmate's mom.  The popular vote was "Yummy!!"

We found a local church that we like, and attended there for Easter services.  When ever we trying to take nice pictures, of course the kids can't work together, but you get the idea...  Owen was good in this moment, but I think Molly's thought bubble reads "seriously?  You people want me to stand next to him and smile?  I will be right here chillin against the fireplace"

Then the silliness began....

After we got back from church, I got Molly to let me take some pictures in the front yard....  Our little girl is growing up so fast and I really cherish these moments....

First week

We spent most of Thursday during the day, unpacking and Friday I went into the office to catch up on some work before the weekend....  Friday afternoon it was pretty nice weather and we just all needed to get out of the house and take a break from unpacking.  So we headed up Burnaby mountain after I got home, to do some hiking around with the kids. 

This is a view looking north over Burrard Inlet.   This picture does the in-person view no justice.

 

Molly was quite happy to get outside and run around.  Lots of laughs of course...

Daddy!  This way to the swings!!

Lots of playgrounds in the parks around here, which Owen just loves...

The hoodlums on a rock in the park. 

Owen wanted us to take this picture to send to his friends from school back in Pennsylvania.

The daffodils were blooming in the park... this picture turned out very cute.

Saturday it was raining (shocking I know).... so we went into Stanley Park to visit the Vancouver Aquarium.  Maybe it was the weather, but it was packed!  We purchased season passes as they paid for themselves if we went only twice.  What a great aquarium!  It isn't as big as Baltimore, but the quality is very high and they have a lot of displays showing off a lot of local aquatic life.  They also have Beluga whales, sea lions, otters, dolphins etc...  Owen and Molly just loved it and we will certainly be going back again sometime soon.

Love this picture.  Molly was just enamored by the "fishies" in this tank.  I think she would have stood there for the rest of the afternoon...

In the lower level, they have an entire room dedicated to snakes, spiders and frogs and this was an interactive display where the kids could climb under the habitat and stand up in a bubble.  Owen loved this!

They are doing a water works improvement project on our street... adding new fire hydrants and improving the main supply line... Owen and Molly watched them work for quite some time.

 The queen with her new galoshes.  She loves the pink stripes!

 

Molly was hanging out with me after we got our cable up and running and was watching the disney channel in our bed.  I came back in to this scene...  kicked back, crossed leg.  I laughed out loud.

Our "Home"

In January, Allison and I took a discovery trip up to Vancouver for a week.  We spent most of this time experiencing the area and searching for potentially suitable housing. 

The real estate market in Vancouver is similar to the west coast USA, with some issues specific to this area further driving up market value.  So a 1300sqft townhouse will run between $300/400K and single family homes between $500K and +1 Million depending on where you are located.   The market in general has been on a rocket ship for over 10 years now, rarely appreciating less than 5%, and usually more.  As a result, this has brought in significant investment dollars into real estate.  Of the rental homes that we looked at, more than 50% were owned by investors from China or the Middle east.  As remote investments, they were usually not cared for particularly well. 

The other phenomena that we discovered is that a significant number of people rent because it takes a reasonably high family income to purchase property.  One agent told us that they typically have less than 3% vacancy of rental inventory in this area and attractive properties put up for rent are often rented and back off the market in days, not weeks or months. 


In quite random fashion, we came across a Craig-list rental ad for a home that was close to the office.  After calling the rental management company, we were surprised to find out that it was a family, also taking an international assignment, who was looking for a long term lease tenant.  The property was beautiful and the more we researched it, the more perfect it sounded.  It was less than 4 miles to my office, the local school was rated very high and Owen could walk to it...  it had a hot tub, a huge deck... great yard etc.. etc..

After looking at this and several other properties, we came back and negotiated an offer and were quickly approved and granted the lease.  Shortly after, I met the owners, who were so happy that a family was going to take care of their house rather than interim tenants.  Randomly, I had decided to sell my car back in Pennsylvania and I had seen a Mini Cooper S in the driveway when we viewed the house.  I inquired about it and yes they were looking to sell... so we struck a deal on the car.  They also introduced us to some friends of theirs who were a great help as we moved up here.  During this all, we had a good laugh about how we were going to step in and assume their life.

Several friends and family have inquired just exactly where we are at in Vancouver...  So if you look at the map below, you can see Vancouver itself is a peninsula.  The actual metro downtown area is directly north of the "Vancouver" text on the map.  We are inside the red square, which is east of the city about 12 miles. So jump down to the next map for a close-up view..

The house has a Port Moody address, but we are more or less on the borders of Port Moody, Coquitlam and Burnaby.  Burnaby mountain is between us, and Simon Frasier University is on top of that mountain.  We are close to pretty much everything and are starting to develop a new reference where if it takes longer than 10 minutes to get where we want to go, it's a "long trip" :)